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Majority of Americans think Trump is targeting enemies, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds
Trump's Justice Department in the past month has brought criminal charges against three prominent adversaries of the president.
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Reuters - Thu, 23, Oct 2025
- 10:39 EDT
- 20
U.S. President Donald Trump exits the Oval Office to speak at a Rose Garden Club lunch at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., October 21, 2025. / REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
More than half of Americans, including about three in 10 Republicans, believe President Donald Trump is using federal law enforcement to go after his enemies, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll that also found growing concern about U.S. political divisions nine months into his second term in office.
Some 55 percent of poll respondents in the six-day poll, which closed on Oct. 20, agreed with a statement that the Republican president is using law enforcement to target his enemies, while 26 percent disagreed and the rest were unsure or did not respond.
Some 85 percent of the poll respondents who identified themselves as Democrats agreed, as did 29 percent of the Republican poll takers.
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Trump's Justice Department in the past month has brought criminal charges against three prominent adversaries of the president, including former FBI director James Comey, New York State Attorney General Letitia James, and former National Security Adviser John Bolton. All three have denied wrongdoing.
The U.S. Justice Department has historically kept an arm's length distance from the president, seeking to protect prosecutorial independence.
Trump campaigned ahead of the 2024 presidential election with pledges for retribution against his enemies. He had particular disdain for Comey and James, who had led criminal probes against him that he contends were politically motivated. Trump has denied ordering the Justice Department to indict his foes, though last month he appeared to push federal prosecutors to charge Comey and James.
Divided and unsettled
The poll revealed a nation deeply divided and unsettled by its divisions.
Some 67 percent of respondents expressed at least a fair amount of concern about U.S. political division and conflict. The share who voiced "a great deal" of worry about it rose to 43 percent, up from 39 percent in an Oct. 2023 Reuters/Ipsos poll. Trump's current term in office has been marked by high-profile political violence, including the assassinations of a Democratic state lawmaker and a prominent Republican activist. Trump himself was wounded last year in an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania.
Just 8 percent of respondents, a small number in terms of public opinion polling, agreed with a statement that "to achieve my idea of a better society, violent acts are acceptable." Similarly small percentages of respondents said it was okay for people in their political party to commit violence or threaten people to achieve political goals.
Among the respondents, 31 percent identified themselves as Republicans, 28 percent as Democrats, and 41 percent as not affiliated with either party.
The Republican respondents expressed more concern than Democrats about extremism within their own party's ranks. Poll respondents were asked whether each political party was too extreme, too willing to compromise, or appropriately balanced between the two options. Among Republicans, 18 percent said they considered their own party too extreme, compared to 11 percent of Democrats.
Political polarization has been on the rise for decades in the United States. It has appeared particularly acute in recent months as Trump's fellow Republicans, and then opposition Democrats, stepped up efforts to redraw the boundaries of voting districts to favor their party's candidates in the Nov. 2026 congressional elections.
Some 61 percent of poll respondents said these redistricting plans were bad for democracy. The same percentage also said it is no longer possible to draw the boundaries fairly.
The poll, which was conducted online, gathered responses from 4,385 U.S. adults nationwide. The results had margins of error between 2 and 3 percentage points.
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